Memphis coaches indicted

Posted: Friday, August 31, 2001

By Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Two former Memphis high school coaches surrendered to federal authorities on Thursday, a day after they were charged with conspiring to steer star player Albert Means to the university offering the most money.

Lynn Lang, former head coach at Trezevant High School, was charged Wednesday in a nine-count indictment of conspiracy, bribery and extortion. His former assistant, Milton Kirk, was charged with conspiracy.

Both made their first court appearance Thursday and were released on their own recognizance. Their arraignment was set for Sept. 12.

Means, a former Parade All-America defensive lineman, transferred to the University of Memphis in January after playing last fall at Alabama. He left the Crimson Tide after learning Lang and Kirk may have shopped his talents to several schools without his knowledge.

The 6-foot-4, 340-pound Means was cleared by the NCAA on Wednesday to play this fall at Memphis.

''It feels good to be playing football again,'' said Means, who declined to discuss the charges against his former coaches.

The indictment states:

Between April 1999 and August 2000, Lang solicited the universities of Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida State, Michigan State and Memphis. There is no mention of conversations with Alabama.

After mailing videotaped football highlights of Means to the universities, Lang met with coaches, with Kirk attending some of those meetings. He told recruiters they were not allowed to directly contact Means; all contact had to go through him.

He told a Georgia coach during a May 4, 1999, meeting at Trezevant High, that Georgia would have a hard time recruiting Means if Georgia could not do anything for him.

Later that day, Lang met with a Georgia booster and said signing Means ''would take two vehicles, a house and $60,000.'' He and Kirk then met with a Georgia coach at the Pure Passion Club in Memphis to discuss getting the two cars in exchange for Means.

In other discussions in May, Lang requested two cars, $50,000 to $75,000 in cash, and a house from Tennessee, and made a similar offer to Mississippi. He told Michigan State it would take two cars, $75,000 to $80,000 and a house.

In August, he told a Tennessee booster the price had gone up and in September quoted Memphis a price of $200,000.

In January, Lang and Kirk met with an Arkansas coach and Lang asked if Arkansas was ''straight business like Alabama.'' Lang also asked Arkansas for $200,000.

A Michigan State coach told authorities that Lang told him in January that he ''had already been paid $50,000'' for Means, but Lang refused to tell him which school. He ''advised the coach that he would learn on the national signing date if he did not 'get in the game.'''

Lang asked Michigan State for $50,000 up front and $150,000 after the national signing date on Feb. 2.

On Feb. 2, Means, wearing a ''Roll Tide'' hat provided by Lang, announced at a news conference that he would sign with Alabama. Lang and Kirk were at the news conference.

The indictment does not name coaches or boosters. It also does not indicate that Lang ever received $200,000 from Alabama or one of its boosters.

However, prosecutors said more indictments are possible.

The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reported that the grand jury had called several college football coaches to testify, including Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer, Arkansas' Houston Nutt and new Georgia coach Mark Richt, who reportedly knew about Lang while a Florida State assistant.

Fulmer neither confirmed nor denied that he testified.

''I don't have comment about any of that,'' he said Thursday.

Kirk testified under oath Monday at a Memphis school board hearing that booster Logan Young paid Lang $200,000 to get Means to sign with Alabama. The board suspended Kirk without pay from teaching for a year and banned him from coaching.

Young, a Memphis businessman who has not been charged, maintains his innocence. He said Wednesday he had not testified before the grand jury but had talked with other investigators.

The NCAA and the Southeastern Conference are also investigating the allegations.

''I've told them everything I know,'' Young said. ''I wasn't involved in it.''

When asked whether he gave anyone any money to get Means to sign with Alabama, he said ''never.''

Kirk said he was ''upset and nervous because I tried to do the right thing and now I'm being punished.''

Kirk told The Commercial Appeal about the recruitment scheme earlier this year, which led to the federal investigation.

Lang resigned from the Memphis school system following the allegations but denied wrongdoing. He was hired this summer as a high school football coach in Rolling Fork, Miss., but Georgia Russell, superintendent of the South Delta School District, said Thursday that Lang will not coach Friday in the school's season opener. She said the school board would decided his future.

''My recommendation to the board is he will not be coaching at all,'' Russell said. ''That would be the end of a coaching career.''

If convicted on all counts, Lang faces a maximum of 135 years in jail and up to $2.2 million in fines. Kirk would face five years and fines up to $250,000.

Lang will be represented by Memphis attorney A C Wharton and Kirk by attorney Walter Bailey, also of Memphis.

On the Net:

University of Memphis: http://gotigersgo.fansonly.com/

This article published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, August 31, 2001.